Unhas opens medical faculty to students with disabilities

Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas) is reinforcing its commitment to delivering inclusive and equitable higher education by opening all S1 programmes, including the Faculty of Medicine, through the disability affirmative pathway. This step forms part of the university’s efforts to ensure that all prospective students have equal opportunities to access higher education without discrimination. Head of the Unhas Disability Centre (Pusdis), Dr Ishak Salim, stated in Makassar on Friday that everyone possesses strengths that are often unseen, making it essential to provide equal opportunities and chances for people with disabilities. “We often discover miracles. Logically, people with disabilities are full of limitations, yet in reality, they possess unexpected abilities. What friends with disabilities need is just an opportunity,” Ishak emphasised. He explained that this commitment to equality is reflected in the policy of all faculties opening opportunities for prospective students with disabilities in the new student admissions for the 2026/2027 Academic Year. According to him, this policy signifies the strengthening direction of Unhas’s development as a campus that is adaptive to the diversity and needs of all learners. Unhas, Ishak continued, is now increasingly active in creating equal spaces for people with disabilities. Specifically for the learning process, Unhas Pusdis and the Quality Assurance and Educational Development Institute (LPMPP) are collaborating to formulate guidelines for lecturers and educational staff in the academic process. “This collaboration has produced five guidebooks for lecturers that can be used in preparing learning, conducting competency assessments, and evaluating learning for students with disabilities,” he said. “Now in the layout process, this will be the first guidebook published in higher education institutions in Indonesia,” added the lecturer from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. Head of the Subdirectorate of New Student Admissions at Universitas Hasanuddin, Nurul Ichsani M.I.Kom, explained that strengthening the disability affirmative pathway is not only related to the new student admission selection process but also part of the commitment to building a more inclusive and friendly higher education system for all groups. “Higher education must open equal spaces for all prospective students. Therefore, strengthening the SOP for student admissions through the disability affirmative pathway is an important step so that the services provided are increasingly adaptive to students’ needs,” she clarified.